Editing W. A. Mathieu (section)

== Career ==
Mathieu studied jazz composition with [[William Russo (musician)|William Russo]] from 1954 to 1958; Eurocentric music with [[Easley Blackwood Jr.|Easley Blackwood]] from 1963 to 1967; Middle Eastern music with Nubian master musician [[Hamza El Din]] from 1971 to 2004, with whom he also collaborated; and raga with North Indian vocalist [[Pandit Pran Nath]] from 1973 to 1996. Mathieu's recordings reflect the integration of these and many other influences.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s (as Bill Mathieu), he spent several years as an arranger and composer for [[Stan Kenton]] and [[Duke Ellington]] orchestras.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Carey|first=Norman|date=2002-03-01|title=W. A. Mathieu. Harmonic Experience. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 1997|journal=Music Theory Spectrum|language=en|volume=24|issue=1|pages=121–134|doi=10.1525/mts.2002.24.1.121|issn=0195-6167}}</ref> Kenton's album ''[[Standards in Silhouette]]'' consists entirely of Mathieu's arrangements<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/standards-in-silhouette-stan-kenton-capitol-records-review-by-william-grim.php|title=Stan Kenton: Standards in Silhouette|last=Grimm|first=William|date=8 Oct 2002|website=All About Jazz|language=en|access-date=2019-04-08}}</ref> and revealed the young Mathieu (then 22 years of age) to be an adept manipulator of compositional materials.

He was one of the founders and the musical director for [[The Second City]] in Chicago,<ref>Coda Magazine: Issue 319–330</ref> the first ongoing improvisational theater troupe in the United States, and was later the musical director for [[The Committee (improv group)|The Committee]], an improv theater in San Francisco that was an offshoot of The Second City. In the 1970s, he was on the faculties of [[San Francisco Conservatory of Music]] and [[Mills College]]. In 1969, Mathieu founded the [[Sufi]] Choir in San Francisco among followers of [[Samuel L. Lewis]], and he directed the choir until 1982.

Mathieu enjoys sharing his tuning expertise with others, including beginners — and especially those who are convinced they are tone-deaf. “Nobody is tone-deaf,” he claims. He has regularly trained his “Tone-Deaf Choirs” to sing in tune, often in public.

He now devotes himself to practice, performance, recording, composition, teaching, and writing from his home near Sebastopol, California.